Donatello (Sculptor) and
Leonardo (Inventor, Artist
and Scientist) Day
Donatello’s Biography
• Born in Florence in 1386; died in
1466
• Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi
• Made sculptures in bronze and
marble
• Sculpted “David”
• Statue of
Donatello in
Florence
Donatello’s work
• Started doing stonecarving
around 1400 in a Florence
cathedral
• Created two marble statues
• “St. Mark” and “St. George”
• St. Mark
• 2.36
meters
High
In a
Florence
Church
• St. George
• 2.09 meters
High
In a Florence
Church
• It was once said a blind man
could touch one of his statues
and know what it was feeling
• He did some work in bronze on
the tomb of Pope John XXIII
• He did a lot of work with Filippo
Brunellesci (later became
rivals)
• Cosimo de Medici was one of
Donatello’s friends and patrons
Leonardo da Vinci
• Born in 1452 near Florence and
died in 1519 in France
Some feel this is a
Self-portrait
His Work
• He painted the “Mona Lisa” around 1506
• It can now be found
at the Louvre in Paris
Mona was a polite way
of saying “Madame”
In climate controlled,
bullet proof display
• He painted the “Last Supper” in
1498 (Church in Milan)
• From 1482-1499, he lived in
Milan
• 1499-1519 was his “Nomadic
Period”
• Mantua (1500)
• Venice (1501)
• Florence (1501-1506)
• Milan (1506-1513)
• Rome and Florence (1514)
• Pavia, Bologna and Milan (1515)
• France (1516-1519)
• He created over 13,000 pages of
notes and drawings
• Lacked formal education in
Latin and Mathematics
• Tried flying in 1496, but failed
• Leonardo also thought of early
blueprints for weapons of war
(against war)
• Machine guns
• Tank (driven by humans or horses)
• Submarine
• Flame thrower
• Leonardo’s tank design
• Leonardo also wrote from right
to left and was left-handed
• Maybe to make his notes harder to
read
• Would not smear the ink
• Would pull the pen instead of pushing
Try Writing Like Da Vinci
http://www.mos.org/sln/Leonardo/
write.html
• Leonardo’s tomb in France
• http://drawn.ca/2007/05/11/mspaint-mona-lisa/
Making of the Mona Lisa
Video
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=uk2sPl_Z7ZU
or…
http://www.geekologie.com/2007/
05/painting_the_mona_lisa_with_
ms.php
Group Work
• You will work in groups of 2 to
complete the following
• Compare and contrast Donatello
and Leonardo using a Venn
Diagram
• You need 4 similarities, 7
differences and two pictures in
color